Number Of Elderly People With Alzheimer’s, Dementia Will Nearly Triple By Mid-Century, Report Warns

Sep 20, 2013

“By the middle of the century, the number of older people suffering from Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia will nearly triple, severely straining caregiving resources, the charity Alzheimer’s Disease International [ADI] says in a new study released Thursday,” NPR’s “The Two-Way” blog reports. “Currently, some 100 million people globally suffer from the potentially fatal disease,” the news service writes, adding, “That number is expected to increase to 277 million by 2050, as the graying population increases, the World Alzheimer’s Report 2013 says” (Neuman, 9/19). “Half of all older people who need personal care have dementia, the report by [ADI] said, and governments should make dementia a priority by implementing national plans and starting urgent debate on how to ensure long-term care for future generations,” according to Reuters. “Even now, the worldwide cost of dementia care is more than $600 billion, or around 1.0 percent of global gross domestic product, and that can only increase, ADI’s report said” (Kelland, 9/19).

“More attention needs to be paid to helping dementia patients and their families ‘live well with dementia,’ the report said,” HealthDay News writes, adding the report “also called for a 10-fold increase in research funding to ‘re-energize’ the work on dementia prevention, treatment and care” (Preidt, 9/19). “The report makes a range of recommendations including giving paid and unpaid carers ‘appropriate financial rewards’ and monitoring the quality of care both in care homes and in the community,” according to BBC News (Mazumdar, 9/19).